Monday, October 24, 2011

Packing pottery for wholesale

Making pottery is an art and I beleive packing pottery is an art as well. Packing individual pots is not that hard. You can bubble wrap it and put it in a box full of peanuts. But for wholesdale orders, multiple pots need to be packed together. You want to pack efficiently so you can fit several pots in one box and at the same time make sure it is not so tightly packed that the pots hit against each other and break.

Also keep in mind that you can get bigger and bigger boxes to pack more and more pots. I don't recommend that, because if the box is large and awkward, the likeness of it being dropped is higher. I usually use two sizes 17"x13"x13" and occasionally a 18"x18"x16" box. Of course this depends on your size of pieces and the number of pieces you need to ship in every order.

Stretch wrap. This is my life saver. I couldn't live without this stuff.

A good blade

Bubble wrap (Use recycled only if it is in good condition)

Scrap cardboard

Packing peanuts (I use recycled clean peanuts that I get from a local electronic store)

I wrap each piece (in this case my mugs) in bubble wrap. Then using stretch wrap I wrap pieces together with cardboard in between them. This way the pieces don't touch and have a cardboqrd buffer in between. The stretch wrap is wrapped tightly to make sure the pieces don't move.

With 2 inches of peanuts in the bottom layer of the box, the mugs are placed with enough room on the sides and between the two packs of mugs. Then pack peanuts around the corners and edges with another layer of peanuts and more mugs.

Finally it is topped with more peanuts, invoices, business card and info about my work.

Try not to overfill the boxes and tape them securely with tape. I also label the boxes with my pottery labels.

I am sure every potter/artist packs their work in their own way. I would love to hear of more ideas you have and what works for you. Do comment and share with your social networks.

4 comments:

I LOVE the shrink wrap idea! I'll definietly use that! I always double box my work, with the peanuts between the two boxes, but maybe with the shrink wrap, I could eliminate that extra step and waste! And I stopped using fragile tape, as it seemed to be an invitation to be rough with the boxes :(Even had someone who worked for the post office here in Canada recommend not using it too. Thanks for this post, Charan! Great tips!

Great Post Charan, I do a lot of shipping too, but usually larger heavier pieces, I have been wondering if I could get away with this sort of method. Currently I wrap each piece in corrugated wrap, with small plates I'll then tape two together rim to rim with the wrap in between, but usually I just add a couple layers of 5/16" bubblewrap and place them side by side. 3-4 per box using 12x12x8 USPS boxes. If I ship bigger boxes I wrap the same way, then pack smaller boxes with wrapped pieces into bigger boxes with peanuts asa cushioning. The largest I use in this case is 18x18x24.

Wow, this came at the perfect time for me! Thank you so much for the tips. I love that you use so many recycled materials and your shipment still looks so professional. I'll be referring to this post often.